Last month I visited Rifle Mountain Park and met a brother and sister climbing Duo. While the brother had been climbing 5+ years and was redpointing 5.14+, his sister had only been climbing for two months before she redpointed her first 5.12b, Easy skankin, and flashed her first 5.12a the next week. So my question to RC. com is, how long did it take you to redpoint your first 5.12, and what techniques did you use to get there?

Last month I visited Rifle Mountain Park and met a brother and sister climbing Duo. While the brother had been climbing 5+ years and was redpointing 5.14+, his sister had only been climbing for two months before she redpointed her first 5.12b, Easy skankin, and flashed her first 5.12a the next week. So my question to RC. com is, how long did it take you to redpoint your first 5.12, and what techniques did you use to get there?

Its complete common sence, spend enough time with a really good climber and that is what you will become. Some of us had the misfurtune of starting off alone with little info or help... still possible to climb a early .12 with ''avg'' technique, but a better climber will bump that up even more.

People have spent life times figuring out good movement and it has been passed down, if a pewrson misses out on that kinda beta and have to figure it themself.. then they will advance and slow at such standards we had 30 year ago and so.

You don't have to be bitter if you can't climb 5.12, but I am interested in how the people who did this feat so quickly manged to do so.

You should have asked the brother/sister duo then!

But I doubt you would have received an answer that would have helped you personally send 5.12 in 2 months. Or that you would get the answer here, for that matter.

Pretty obvious: genetic giftedness+youth+lots of time for climbing+good coach or mentor+lack of fear = quick progress.

For majority of people, the answer to the "how" question is regular climbing, smart training that focuses on your specific weaknesses, and systematic working upward through the grades in a "pyramid" approach.

This won't likely get you to 5.12 in 2 months, but it will get you there and beyond, if you are serious about wanting it. The time it takes will vary depending on all of the factors listed above-- e.i. your innate abilities, fitness level and background, time you are able to dedicate to climbing and training, luck and care in avoiding injuries, and mental aptitude.

I did, and you are right, it probably won't work for me, especially since I have been climbing for more than two months already. His answer to the question was that he never, not even once, let his sister climb something that was easy. He said that climbing hard lines was all about not thinking of them as hard. He told me that if you begin struggling on 5.12 like her, than 5.13 is only a small step away, and if you begin on 5.8, you can get stuck there forever. So, I am interested in the more normal among us, and it is why I asked the question.

I did, and you are right, it probably won't work for me, especially since I have been climbing for more than two months already. His answer to the question was that he never, not even once, let his sister climb something that was easy. He said that climbing hard lines was all about not thinking of them as hard. He told me that if you begin struggling on 5.12 like her, than 5.13 is only a small step away, and if you begin on 5.8, you can get stuck there forever. So, I am interested in the more normal among us, and it is why I asked the question.

Yeah, well, you could try a mental experiment (or an actual one, if you have volunteers): take a random person who never climbed, and put them on 5.12. How many will struggle to the top, and how many won't get off the ground? And of those that struggled to the top, how many would think that it is fun and they want to start climbing regularly after that experience? This girl obviously had a particular aptitude for climbing...

There are plenty of people wh ostarted on 5.8s and progressed quickly to 5.12 and beyond, so I don't think that climbing an easy climb is in any way a block to climbing hard eventually.

But I agree with the general premise: if you think of 5.12 as impossibly hard, if it was built up in your mind as something unattainable, you will be too intimidated to try. When my daughter climbs, I never tell her the grade. She doesn't even know what the grades are, or care even, because she isn't serious about climbing. I just tell her that I think this particular route is fun and I think that she can do it, and so she boulders the start of 5.13. Or a V3. Or whatever. At her age and size, the start of 5.8 can be just as hard as the start of 5.13.

This is the progressive climber we should all emulate. Chuffdog will show us the way and the light! Please, everyone, you need to climb 5.9 trad if you really want to be cool, any climbing that focus on actual difficulty is an absurdity! Sport climbers! Ha. Sport climbing is neither! Now I am off to go fondle my gear in privacy.

it took me 5 years of climbing once/twice a month plus six months of taking things more seriously (1-2 weekly sessions at the bouldering gym plus trying to climb outside every weekend)

having seen many "good" and "bad" beginners i'd say 90% of "being strong quickly" is climbing regularly with many other climbers of any ability and of positive attitude, and naturally having a light frame (very low body fat, some muscle but not too much, thin shoulders and hips, very thin legs).

However i don't think what one can climb in six months or one year is an absolute predictor of the ultimate potential of the individual...unless we are comparing people having the same background in other sports, same motivation, same age, same local gym/crags...

i think maybe a lot of you guys are kind of missing the point (unless, of course i am missing the point).

the point is, the true zen of climbing requires that one get away from established routes and ratings, and go somewhere unclimbed to establish one's own ratings, that exceed (whether justifiably or not) the broader consensus on difficulty, but somewhere that is also so remote that no one will ever repeat the climbs.

spray about the routes for a while, then conveniently forget where the trailhead to the crag is, and move on.

first redpoint 12? i onsighted the fa on hooks and rp's! and it was a 12d...

i think maybe a lot of you guys are kind of missing the point (unless, of course i am missing the point).

the point is, the true zen of climbing requires that one get away from established routes and ratings, and go somewhere unclimbed to establish one's own ratings, that exceed (whether justifiably or not) the broader consensus on difficulty, but somewhere that is also so remote that no one will ever repeat the climbs.

spray about the routes for a while, then conveniently forget where the trailhead to the crag is, and move on.

first redpoint 12? i onsighted the fa on hooks and rp's! and it was a 12d...

For me it took a serious change in style. 5ish years ago I took a major shift from trad climbing to sport climbing. I also had to change me style from slabby and vertical climbing to steep stuff. I also have some strong perspective changes, if I was going to continue with climbing then I was going to really have to want to keep climbing and face some serious challenges.

So a change in style, a strong determination to overcome challenges, but even with my mental shift I still had to take a while to build up my body and learn how to move.

Way back when I started and I tied in with a bowline on a coil. Seemed like climbing about 5 times a year was was good enough. 5.9 was about all I could be pulled up. I was content to use some borrowed shoes with shoe goo over the holes. Seemed like slab was the name of the game and we didn't trust the bolts. I had no idea, so that was fine.

Fast forward some years, I see a climbing mag. On the cover is this huge orange roof and this climber making a long move. Very dynamic or athletic even gymnastic. I thought 'that's not like any climbing I ever even seen." Anyway I bought that mag and every other mag and book on climbing. Eventually I bought all the videos I could get my hands on. In between working full time and climbing 1 to 4 days a week, it was about a year before I sent that first 12. No one was more suprised than me. In fact a year before I had watched as this god like man scratched and clawed, fell, and took, and hung, and eventually after an hour, was able to clip the chains. I was in awe. I had never seen anyone so good, so powerful. Right then I thought if I ever get good enough to do that I would be happy. Satisfied I would gladly quit climbing and just bask in the glow of my achievement. lol.

It took about 5 years before I lead my first 5.12. Oddly I led 5.12 before ever climbing(TR or leading) 5.11. The 5.12a was a FFA that I worked over a month. My broter and I thought it was maybe 5.11b because we didn't have any reference. We only climbed at a small area we developed. (we have about 100 routes now) The grade was confirmed at 12a by much better climbers after the FFA. low 5,12 is not imposibly harder than 5.10+.